Remember that soda commercial where they took some young folks and sort of implied that a soft drink could solve the world’s problems? It worked splendidly and nobody got upset. It was the seventies and the world was a smoldering mess. Somehow people saw the commercial for what it was. “Can’t we all just get along,” a couple decades before the LA riots.

A competing soda commercial is out now that tries to tap into the same zeitgeist among young people. And it’s a huge swing and a miss. What Coke understood that Pepsi still doesn’t is that you must not hit a theme so squarely on the nose. Coke was able to convey a feeling of unity and love in 1971, when the US was literally on fire and at home and at war abroad. And they did it without showing the VC or Bational Guard laying down their weapons because a famous chick handed them a Coke.

That said, it is still much ado about nothing. Our culture has become a spoon fed controversy mess. Our attention and energy are precious resources, coveted by the new media. What if we chose to make a difference in the world instead of handing over our attention to the news channels’ advertisers? I know it’s hard. Believe me, left on my own, I would spend my days surfing Facebook and making emotional arguments for and against every freaking thing. I kno me. I’ve seen me do it. But life is too important. I want to try and do the hard work of ignoring the trivial. Of making actual change instead of just being outraged.

Or maybe I’ll just give a soda to a cop/Muslim/republican/commie. That’ll fix it.